Pattern Magic Index

Pattern Magic Index is a site where you can admire the work of others tackling the books, or post yr own wonderful things.  It is a great idea that needs our photo love! Check it out!

Machine Needle Organizer: "Homage" is just another way of saying "Knockoff"

Check this out. You slide your machine needle sideways into the stuff by the little text that identifies which needle size and type it is. Saw one at Joann's for 15$.

And check this one out.

I am sure Other (mysterious) will see a lot of action

Same thing, kids. Finally, a use for that nasty glue backed velcro (oops, hook and loop attaching tape); the glue peels apart better than the hook/loop (and gums up the machine if you try to sew it).  Used the fuzzy side, stuck it on a card, made my own labels with the printer and a glue stick. Same damn thing as the one at the store.

Since I use the same needles over and over again, this isn't a bad solution for me. Embroidery? No. Leather? Yes.  Microtex? Which size? Can I read the labels on the needles? Who on earth can?

Yes, I did just dump them on the scanner, turn them right way up, and scan them to determine which  kinds of needles I would need labels for.  I am sure '14' meant something to me at some time. And look, there's an embroidery set! Ha!

I do dream of making an emery cushion for the machiners, sort of killing two problems with one tool; sections labeled with the styles and sizes, slide the semiused needle in and boom, sharpening action! There are lots of how-to's on the interweb; using brass wool or the like has a lot of appeal (cause I have a lot of it for some reason) rather than builder's sand.

 I'm just not organized enough to be that organized yet.

Welcome Culotta Folda!

This is almost better than my birthday.

Today I am the guest blogger on craftypod

Diane has been running a series of all photo/no text blog entries, which is a challenge for wordy little me.

I've been wrapping paper around my fingers trying to come up with a new ...something to wear on the bottom. Something I can make out of cotton, from my vast collection of novelty prints.

Version Two, Version One, final version Four

Today I have a new pattern up on Craftsy
Culotta Folda

Big, drapey, side folds and falls on the bias with all ongrain seaming. Legs wide enough for leaps of faith. Space to add pockets (cause I am all about the pockets).  Elastic waist (could be converted to waistband with zipper front with ease (ooh, joke there)).  Three yards of 44" or wider fabric, enough elastic to go around your waist, and 32 sheets of US letter paper to print it out on.

And a star to sail her by...

So it's a double whammy day for me.

From drawings

to dreadful self reference shots in progress

to honest modeling in public

and the most boring part: walking the digital pattern for continuity.

(not shown: cat trying to knock stuff off of computer table, kids complaining about laundry, spouse  wondering about dinner, boss wondering about sleep deprived employee)

Thirty two pages of graphic uncertainty!

What pleases me, beyond that it's up and done,
is that I really enjoy wearing it.
And I got pockets into it!

(photographers have grumped off to bed)

A new pattern, a new challenge, and the whining cat

Wheeeeee!

I am going to be the guest blogger on the “all photo/no text” edition of CraftyPod on the 24^th.

All else has gone by the wayside.

I sell patterns on Craftsy. I’m not getting rich, but I am meeting folks from all over the planet and hopefully making some good stuff happen. That’s the goal, anyway.

I stay away from clothing patterns. I did put up the pants pattern that I made a billion of for my kids, but the rest is useful, nonsized, small craft stuff. Not so many PDF pages to collate and print.

I have a love/hate relationship with PDF’s. I love that they show up in the middle of the night. I hate that they have to be assembled on ever larger flat spaces. The Titanic 1912/2012 project left me with titanic-sized layouts, forty pages or so. None were as big as the ShowStudio McQueen jacket, which I still haven’t cut out. It’s about a million sheets and half a million pieces, none of which indicate where they go or how they are cut out). And I lost the directions.

I REALLY hate pinning through regular printing paper, and cutting it is almost as bad. It’s worth my time to trace the pattern onto architectural flimsy (thinner tracing paper on big rolls) and do that: I can see the fabric pattern through the flimsy, I can match patterns. Swedish tracing paper? Huh?

What I really love about PDF’s is that they allow all sorts of people to get their stuff out there. You don’t need an advance and a contract with a printer. You don’t need inventory (as a warehouse worker, I have a dread of inventory). You just need an idea and the ability to explain how it goes together.

Okay, a pretty girl to model the product would help.

But back to that Crafty Pod thing. How about a process series of photos? I've been toying with a culotte pattern, mostly folding origami shapes and trying to translate them into clothing. Yes, I've made the Origami Skirt and the shirt, but I wanted the ideas in MY head to make something I could wear with a swagger.

I drew pictures. 

I made more pictures.

I made a model.

This is not what I ended up with, but that doesn't mean I didn't sew one up and turn it into cleaning rags.

And another.

I drew it up in Paint on the ‘puter.

I screwed up printing it out, but I figured that one out.

I laid out the pattern. I sewed it. I made more marks.

I haven’t made a pattern just on the computer before, but this is such a geometry project, it made sense to put up and alter, even in such a blunt tool as Paint.

I redid it in Paint, printed it out,copied the pages with the matching up x’s in the corner, laid it out, numbered the pages in the same spot on each page (even the blanks, I know what happens when you don’t do that and think you’re all clever. You’re not.). I scanned them.I am trying not to knock down a forest. I will lock the cat out of the room again and lay them out One More Time.

My kids are home for the summer, it’s Father’s day and my spouse is being ignored, my cat is whining, and I am trying to keep several ideas in my head at the same time, which is hard for a 54 year old woman with a whining cat. There's still a whole lot of brainscrunching work to do; sew up the photo model, get photos, write the directions ...

And I am having a wonderful time!

And a week from now, I plan on adding one more pattern to my Craftsy store.

CulottaFolda c Ernie K Designs / SK Mascis, designer 2013

All rights reserved. Not for reproduction for sale or distribution

Lining the pocket - Genius!

Welcome to the job I hate the most. Yes, you carry your wallet in your back right pocket in your stylin' jeans. And eventually the killer wallet eats through the fabric.

I can't match the pocket. Undoing rivets is often a disaster. 

 I can topstitch in matching thread, though.

I undid the stitching up to the rivets and pondered my options as I unpicked for an hour.

I can't match the pocket, but I can match the underside....

So I did a patch on the hole, and sewed it on.

Which will eventually wear through the pocket. How to stop this?

I could line it.

I sewed on a piece of nice shirting leftovers, stitching as close to the top row of stitching between the rivets. The grey fabric is going to fold back towards the bottom of the pocket. Left long thread tails to finish it to the edge by hand (adding pockets post also uses this tip) 

Flipped it down (you can see the seam allowance on the grey just below the rivets) Pinned it down to topstitch the first line (the closest to the interior).

Trimmed the lining so its raw edge lands between the two rows of topstitching.

Topstitched second row, left long tails to hand finish.

See the lining? Feeling pretty smart right about now.

And here it is. Yes, it has a tasteful bit of fraying, and it looks like it still has a hole 

AND IT DOESN'T.

Off to do my victory lap around the block.